


What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?

by MelissaWritesStuff



Series: FromOneToEleven [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: First Kiss, Getting Together, Kissing at Midnight, M/M, New Year's Eve, New Years
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-01
Updated: 2016-01-01
Packaged: 2018-05-10 21:03:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5600791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelissaWritesStuff/pseuds/MelissaWritesStuff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You don’t have anyone to kiss at midnight, do you?”</p><p>Tetsurou could sense Kei tense up beside him as he hesitated. “...No. I don’t.”</p><p>Tetsurou took a deep breath before looking up at Kei, and Kei’s expression was <em>impossible</em> to read, so Tetsurou just said it. “Would you mind if I kissed you?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?

**Author's Note:**

> Is this what New Year's is like in Japan? Fuck if I know.

Tetsurou always had terrible luck at New Year’s Eve parties.

Well, not _always_. It was fine, back before he had any real expectations. It was fine when he was just a kid spending the evening with his family, tucked into bed long before midnight ever struck. It was fine when he went to his first party in middle school, and a girl from his class stole his first kiss at 11:59, and he spent the rest of the evening giggling about it with Kenma. It was fine when he got to college and spent the evening at a crazy house party with Bokuto, and the both of them spent the first day of the new year camped out in Tetsurou’s dorm with the worst hangovers ever. Those years were all fine, those years were all remembered fondly.

Then, during Tetsurou’s second year of university, he invited a now third-year Tsukishima Kei down to visit Tokyo for a New Year’s Eve party, and that’s when his luck went sour.

He’d served up the invitation with the explanation that Kei was going to be going to university soon himself, and Tetsurou could give him a tour of the university while he was in town and introduce him to some of Tetsurou’s college friends, but really, he just wanted to see Kei. He hadn’t seen him in almost two years now, and they’d only been able to keep in touch over the phone, and Tetsurou was _dying_ to see him in person. Ever since he and Kei had met, he’d started developing an absolutely massive crush on Kei, and by now, he was absolutely _pathetic_. He felt like he and Kei were fairly good friends, but he needed to see Kei in person to judge if it could ever been something more, like he wanted it to be so, _so_ badly.

And when Kei agreed, Tetsurou had gotten his hopes up too much. When Tetsurou stopped by Kei’s hotel so they could head to the party together and saw him for the first time in two years, he got his hopes up _way_ too much. When they spent most of the party talking and laughing with each other, when Tetsurou got to see how Kei reacted with snorted laughter to bad jokes where he’d be sarcastic over text, when, about an hour away from midnight, Kei told Tetsurou he was having a really nice time and thanked him for inviting him, Tetsurou got his hopes up way, way, _way_ too much.

Then, over that last hour, Kei got a little too tipsy, hit it off with the ace from Tetsurou’s college volleyball team, and ended up agreeing to kissing _him_ at midnight while Tetsurou was left to sulk in the corner.

The next morning, Kei had been horribly embarrassed by the whole thing. He told Tetsurou over and over that he wasn’t the type to kiss someone he’d _just_ met at a party, and made Tetsurou _promise_ he wouldn’t tell anyone about it. And Tetsurou had assured Kei that he wouldn’t judge him for it in the slightest and told him that it was practically part of the college experience, and promised not to tell a soul.

He said it all with a laugh, but inside, he was dying.

The next year, Kei was living in Tokyo. He didn’t actually go to Tetsurou’s university, but his apartment was close enough that the two of them met up for lunch or coffee or shopping every so often, and getting to spend so much time with him in person, Tetsurou fell in love with Kei all over again. He just _adored_ Kei. He’d adored Kei when he was a snarky fifteen-year-old volleyball player and he adored Kei when he was an equally snarky eighteen-year-old paleontology student. But as much as Tetsurou loved to ask Kei to hang out, he couldn’t find the courage to ask him on a date. The best he could do by the time New Year’s rolled around again was invite him to another party.

“Oh, that sounds great,” Kei had told him, and Tetsurou started to get his hopes up again until Kei added, “Actually, uh... Do you mind if I bring someone?”

“Bring someone?”

“Y-yeah, I, uh... I’ve actually kinda been seeing someone, and we’ve only been on a few dates, but he’s really nice. I bet you’d like him.”

 _I highly, highly doubt that_ , Tetsurou had thought to himself even as he’d smiled and told Kei that it was fine.

The party came, Tetsurou spent half the night talking to Kei and wanting him so badly his chest hurt, and the other half watching Kei smiling and laughing with his new boyfriend. At midnight, Kei kissed his boyfriend, and Tetsurou was again left to sulk by himself.

“Maybe it’s just not meant to be,” Kenma had told him when Tetsurou was getting it all off of his chest the next day. “It’s a new year - maybe make a resolution to get over Tsukishima.”

And Tetsurou did make a resolution. It seemed to be going pretty well until March, when Kei and his boyfriend broke up. With hope restored, Tetsurou fell way, way back in.

That year seemed especially promising, as well. He and Kei started hanging out a _lot_. It was no longer just the occasional get together; this year, Tetsurou and Kei saw each other almost every single day. They went to each other’s dorms and apartments to hang out, to study or watch TV or even just sit and talk. While Kenma and Bokuto would always have a special place as Tetsurou’s best friends, he and Kei got really, _really_ close this year. There was a place in Tetsurou’s life that almost felt like it was _made_ for Tsukishima Kei to occupy. Kenma knew Tetsurou better than anyone, and when Tetsurou wanted to talk, to get something off his chest, to try and sort out his problems, he went to Kenma. Bokuto, on the other hand, was Tetsurou’s go-to when he wanted to do things, when he wanted to go to a bar or go to karaoke or go to a party. But Kei was something that Tetsurou wanted to just _exist_ with. When Tetsurou just wanted someone else in the room with him, when he wanted to re-watch one of his favorite movies and point out his favorite scenes to someone who had never seen it before, when he wanted to listen to music but let someone else DJ for him, anything at all that was just relaxing and being at peace, he wanted to do that with Kei. He _loved_ being with Kei.

And now, more than ever, he wanted to _be with_ Kei.

But now, there was so much more on the line. If he asked out Kei now, got rejected, and lost Kei’s friendship... that would be losing _so much_. He didn’t want to spend Sunday afternoons by himself. He didn’t want to cook dinner just for himself every night of the week. He didn’t want to lose his source of new music and random dinosaur facts and clever retorts to his cheesy jokes. Even if he didn’t have as much of Kei as he wanted, it was better than not having Kei at all.

That New Year’s Eve, Kei wasn’t at a party with Tetsurou at all. He met up with Yamaguchi and a few other friends and went somewhere else.

Sometime during the party, he texted Tetsurou saying that he was bored and that he wished he’d gone with Tetsurou instead. That made Tetsurou feel pretty good about things.

The next day, Tetsurou had teasingly asked if Kei had kissed anyone at midnight, and Kei had avoided answering. That made Tetsurou feel pretty bad about things.

This year, on the thirty-first of December, Tetsurou was absolutely, hopelessly in love with Tsukishima Kei. And his expectations for anything to happen were both ridiculously high and exceedingly low.

When Tetsurou knocked on Kei’s apartment door so they could head to the party together, Kei looked _terribly_ wonderful, in jeans that made his legs look like they went for miles and a pale gray button-down that fit him like a dream and the tousles of his hair looking extra perfect and extra soft.

“Well, don’t you look nice,” Tetsurou told him with a grin.

Kei narrowed his eyes as he widened the door and let Tetsurou inside. “Ha ha.”

“I’m serious,” Tetsurou insisted, closing the door behind him as Kei went to the bathroom to do a last mirror check. “How come you never believe me when I tell you you look good?”

“Because with your sense of style, I can’t actually trust any of your opinions,” Kei called back.

Tetsurou burst out laughing. “ _Ouch_.”

Kei popped his head out of the bathroom just to give Tetsurou a smug grin. “I’m teasing,” he said before ducking back in. “You look nice, too.”

 _Let’s skip the party_ , Tetsurou thought to himself with a sigh. _We’ll stay here. Order pizza. Stay up late talking about dinosaurs and philosophy and whether or not aliens exist. Maybe make out a little somewhere in there. That sounds a hell of a lot better than going to a party and not getting kissed at midnight for the fourth year in a row._

“Alright, let’s go,” Kei said, stepping out and flicking off the light in his bathroom.

Tetsurou checked the time on his phone as he followed Kei out of his apartment. 9:07. He had a little less than three hours to enjoy with Kei before getting snubbed at midnight.

_It’ll be nice while it lasts._

~

The party they’d chosen to go to this year turned out to be a bit of a dud. It was overcrowded, the music was lame, and not a lot of interesting people had shown up. If ever a night was going to cause Tetsurou to get caught up in the heat of the moment and finally confess to Kei, this was not going to be it.

Or at least, so Tetsurou thought, because it was at this party that Tetsurou’s luck started to change. At half past ten, Tetsurou went to the drinks table to get something to drink for Kei and himself, and as he looked among the bottles of alcohol for something to cut with soda, he noticed a bottle that had been pushed back off the table and had miraculously not smashed on the floor. Tetsurou picked it up where it lay forgotten and unopened, and saw that it was a bottle of red wine.

And while Kei simply tolerated most other forms of alcohol, Kei _loved_ red wine.

Tetsurou immediately hid the bottle under his jacket and went to find him, exactly where Tetsurou left him at the other end of the room.

Kei looked up at Tetsurou with a smile as he approached before looking down and frowning at Tetsurou’s extremely suspicious posture. “What are you hiding?”

“Look what I found,” Tetsurou said quietly as he opened his jacket just enough for Kei to see the label. Kei’s eyes immediately went wide and a grin spread across his face.

Kei checked over his shoulder to make sure no one else had seen (because at a shitty party like this, they deserved to have the bottle to themselves) before turning back to Tetsurou and pushing him forward.

“Go find us an empty room,” Kei told him, something in him suddenly alight with excitement and mischief, and Tetsurou was absolutely loving it. “I’ll look for glasses and a corkscrew in the kitchen.”

“You got it,” Tetsurou said with a nod, giving Kei a quick salute before slipping out of the crowded living room and into somewhere less populated. He ended up settling in what seemed to be the host’s home office, and a few minutes later, Kei found him and joined him. Both of them were giggling as Tetsurou got the bottle open and poured each of them a glass.

“God, you’re the best,” Kei said with a sigh as Tetsurou handed him his glass. He brought it to his nose to smell it and quickly pulled it away. “ _Oh_ , wow, that’s cheap.”

Tetsurou snorted. “Too cheap?”

“No way.” Kei gave a shrug. “I have good taste but low standards.”

Tetsurou laughed and held up his glass in a toast. “To low standards.”

“And a happy new year,” Kei agreed, chuckling as he clinked his glass against Tetsurou’s.

After they both took a sip, Tetsurou cleared his throat. “So, what, are we spending the rest of the night hiding out in here?”

“Sounds better than actually sticking around the party,” Kei pointed out.

“That’s true. Sorry for picking a bad one.”

“It’s not your fault,” Kei told him. “Besides, I’m not even really in the party mood this year. Maybe next year we should like, travel or something.”

Tetsurou almost had to shake his head a little to avoid it getting cluttered with sudden fantasies of them traveling somewhere together for New Year’s, how much time they’d get to spend together and all the fun things they could do and all the memories they’d make. “That’d be awesome. Better than hiding out in an office with a stolen bottle of wine, anyway.”

“This is fun, too,” Kei said with a grin. “We can just talk. Also, I call dibs on the desk chair.”

Tetsurou just laughed and watched as Kei sat down and made himself comfortable in the the chair, leaning back and casually swiveling back and forth. Even if he didn’t get the spinny chair, just talking with Kei honestly sounded like the best way he could spend this New Year’s Eve.

~

By 11:30, Tetsurou was very tipsy and very, very, very in love with Kei.

Tetsurou was always in love with Kei, and it always got especially bad whenever they just sat and talked, but Tetsurou was of course the biggest hopeless romantic in Japan (and possibly the world). Hiding out in the back of a party with Kei, drinking stolen wine, on the last night of the year, the potential of the illusive midnight kiss only half an hour away... It was possible Tetsurou had never loved Kei _more_ than he did at this moment.

They were both fairly tipsy at this point, and they’d abandoned even the spinny chair so they could sit together on the floor while they talked about random crap. Tetsurou could probably list at least _ten_ more moments they’d shared just this past year that were more romantic than this one.

But it was New Year’s Eve. And the magical bonus this moment got from being a holiday pushed it to the top.

“Hey, Tetsurou,” Kei said after a pause in conversation, and Tetsurou couldn’t help but smile because he _loved_ when Kei called him by his given name, but it only ever happened when he was sleepy or tipsy.

“Yeah?”

“Do you believe in New Year’s resolutions?”

“Do I _believe_ in them?”

“Yeah, like, do you think they’re nice or stupid?”

“I think they can be both,” Tetsurou said with a chuckle. “Why do you ask?”

Kei just looked down at the ground, tapping his fingernails against his glass. “I don’t really know how to feel about them...”

Tetsurou snorted.

Kei looked up and frowned at him. “What’s so funny?”

“Your opinions about _everything_ are either super angsty or ‘I don’t know.’”

Kei’s jaw dropped. “That is _not_ true!”

Tetsurou just laughed. “Tsukki, we first became friends because you wanted to know what Bokuto and I thought about volleyball, because your own opinion was both angsty _and_ ‘I don’t know.’”

“That doesn’t mean _all_ my opinions are like that,” Kei grumbled.

Tetsurou just shook his head and smiled. “C’mon, you have _some_ opinion, or you wouldn’t have asked.”

Kei sighed. “I mean... I guess I just don’t see the point. I don’t get why New Year’s is the only time you can make all these big goals. I don’t get why you can’t do them at any time. I don’t get why people bother when they don’t even stick to them. It all just kinda seems like a waste of energy to even bother. You’re gonna give up eventually, so why make the effort in the first place?”

“That is such a _you_ thing to say,” Tetsurou pointed out.

“What is _that_ supposed to mean?”

“You’re not wrong,” Tetsurou contended. “A lot of people don’t stick to their goals. And there’s no reason to wait for New Year’s to make changes in your life. But there’s nothing wrong with wanting a fresh start. And something about it all is kind of sweet, the fact that people see a new year as a chance to start exercising or learn a new language or travel to new places. A new year also means new problems, more chances for things to go wrong, climate change getting worse, you name it. But no one makes lists about everything they hope to _avoid_. They focus on bettering themselves and achieving more and having a nice time. Even if they give up on their goals by March, isn’t it nice that they were inspired for at least a little while?”

Kei thought about it a moment, finishing off his glass of wine as he let Tetsurou’s words sink in, and then shrugged. “You’re not wrong.”

“Have any resolutions you wanna make?” Tetsurou asked, scooting a little closer to Kei and watching him with an exaggeratedly expectant expression.

Kei just laughed softly and shook his head at him. “Eh, not really. Nothing I haven’t been hoping for already.”

Tetsurou raised an eyebrow. “What have you been already hoping for?”

Kei just flicked Tetsurou’s forehead, right between the eyes. “Don’t be nosy.”

“Ow,” Tetsurou grumbled as he moved back away from Kei.

“What about you, do you have any resolutions?”

Tetsurou gave it some thought. “I wanna learn to play guitar.”

Kei actually burst out laughing.

“What is so funny about that?!”

“There’s no way you’re gonna stick to that!” Kei told him.

“Well, now I will, just to spite you!” Tetsurou shot back as though he were angry (even though he was smiling and laughing, too). “I’ll be _amazing_ , and I’ll play you all your favorite songs, and I’ll serenade you so well, you’ll be falling into my arms in no time at all.”

“You’re gonna learn three chords and then give up.”

“I can’t believe you have such little faith in me, Tsukki.”

“Call me Kei,” Kei insisted, nudging Tetsurou’s knee with his own. “I’ve been calling you Tetsurou. Call me Kei.”

Tetsurou had officially never been more in love with Kei.

~

“It’s about ten minutes to midnight,” Kei pointed out. “Do we want to stay in here or countdown with everyone else?”

“What do _you_ want to do?”

Kei looked at Tetsurou, then to the door, then back at Tetsurou before wincing. “I’d rather stay in here.”

Tetsurou grinned. “Me, too.”

“Perfect.”

Even if Kei just said the time, Tetsurou checked his phone anyway. 11:51.

_I should just ask._

He glanced over at Kei, and Kei just looked so beautiful... He was all softness and light, all long limbs and slouchy posture and soft, barely-there smiles on lips Tetsurou had wanted to kiss for years. Tetsurou felt like he would sell his soul just to run his fingers through Kei’s hair. He felt like he could die happy if he could just pull Kei into his arms right now. Kei was just glowing in the dim light of the room, and Tetsurou wanted him, so, so bad...

_All you have to do is ask._

11:52.

_You can’t wait too long._

_You’re gonna miss your chance._

11:53.

“H-hey, Kei?” Tetsurou said quietly, clearing his throat a little.

Kei looked up at him. “Hm?”

“You, uh... Can...” Tetsurou cleared his throat again and looks down at his lap. “So, uh... y-you...”

“Tetsurou, spit it out.”

Tetsurou’s mouth went dry as he finally asked, “You don’t have anyone to kiss at midnight, do you?”

Tetsurou could sense Kei tense up beside him as he hesitated. “...No. I don’t.”

Tetsurou took a deep breath before looking up at Kei, and Kei’s expression was _impossible_ to read, so Tetsurou just said it. “Would you mind if I kissed you?”

Kei just blinked. “You want to kiss me at midnight?”

Tetsurou gave a jerky nod. “If that’s okay with you.”

Kei just stared back at him, and Tetsurou slowly started to regret everything that had ever happened in his life, including being born, but then Kei’s impassive expression shifted just the teeniest, tiniest bit. His wide, surprised eyes softened, and his lips quirked up into the smallest hint of a smile.

“Okay.”

Tetsurou’s heart absolutely stopped. “Okay?”

Kei nodded. “Yeah. Okay.”

Tetsurou was going to get to kiss Kei. In seven minutes, Tetsurou was going to get to kiss Tsukishima Kei. It didn’t even seem real, but Kei was looking at him and smiling and telling him that it was okay.

“Okay,” Tetsurou said, and he suddenly realized he had a ridiculous smile on his face. He turned back to face his lap. “Okay, awesome.”

Then there was a pause.

Tetsurou had no idea what to say, and apparently, neither did Kei.

Tetsurou checked his phone. 11:54.

“Six more minutes,” Tetsurou said.

Kei checked his own phone for confirmation. “Yup.”

There was another pause, so Kei unlocked his phone and responded to a text message quickly before shutting his phone off again and setting it in his lap.

_Holy hell, this is awkward._

Tetsurou was desperately trying to think of something to say, but he was coming up with nothing. He and Kei were going to kiss in six minutes - what the hell were you supposed to talk about with that kind of thing over your head?

After what felt like surely ten minutes, Tetsurou checked his phone again. 11:55.

_Maybe I... should’ve waited a few minutes to ask..._

Kei groaned suddenly, making Tetsurou jump a little. “Oh, my God, can we just... start _now_?”

Tetsurou’s face started to go red. “ _What_?”

“Sorry, just... sitting here waiting is driving me _crazy_ ,” Kei said, tossing his phone aside and turning to face Tetsurou. “Can we just... get it over with?”

Tetsurou immediately deflated, his heart sinking at Kei’s words. “‘Get it over with’?” he repeated quietly.

Kei’s eyes went wide. “Wait, no, not like that! That’s not what I meant at all! I just mean... I don’t know, sitting here waiting is just creating this huge, ridiculous build-up, and it’s just making it nerve-wracking instead of something nice.”

“You think it’s something nice?” Tetsurou asked for confirmation. Even if Kei hadn’t meant his comment negatively, Tetsurou’s confidence couldn’t help but be a little shaken.

“Of course,” Kei said, shifting over closer to Tetsurou. Tetsurou’s face got a little warmer. “I _do_ want to kiss you, Tetsurou, I just... don’t want to wait five more minutes.”

Tetsurou let out a shaky laugh. “Can’t argue with that.”

Kei shifted closer again, and now their knees were touching. “So... we’ll start now and go on through midnight.”

“O-okay,” Tetsurou said, taking a deep breath because he felt absolutely dizzy. He and Kei weren’t just going to kiss at midnight - they were going to make out _until_ midnight. It was more than Tetsurou could’ve asked for. “Uh, should I start? Or...?”

“Oh, uh, if you want.”

Tetsurou put his hands on Kei’s shoulders and started to lean in, but got distracted for a moment because he’d never gotten to look at Kei, _really_ look at him, this close before. He’d imagined this so many times, but actually sitting here and actually being in this moment... It was amazing. It was absolutely amazing. He was actually about to kiss Kei, and Kei actually, _actually_ wanted to kiss him, too.

“Tetsurou?” Kei said quietly at Tetsurou’s hesitation, and Tetsurou snapped out of it and continued. He decided to move his hands up from Kei’s shoulders to instead gently hold his face, and his skin was _so_ soft. Kei let out a gentle sigh at Tetsurou’s touch, and Tetsurou wanted him so, _so_ badly.

 _You have him_ , Tetsurou reminded himself as he openly looked down at Kei’s lips. _All you have to do is lean in._

So Tetsurou did, and he tilted his head one way and delicately tilted Kei’s the other, and he let his eyes fall closed, and then his lips were against Tsukishima Kei’s.

And _God_ , Tetsurou was right to want this, he was so, so right. In that moment when their lips meant, when Tetsurou finally found out exactly how soft Kei’s lips were and exactly what they tasted like, kissing Tsukishima Kei was everything. Feeling Kei sigh and lean into his kiss and put his hands on his waist was everything. In that moment, Kei was _his_. After years of belonging to Kei in the most pathetic way, Kei was finally his, and even if this was the only moment he was going to get, even if this was was all going to end at midnight, it was worth it. It was worth it for the warmth that flooded his chest and the warmth of Kei’s lips and the warmth of Kei’s touch. It was worth it to be able to tell Kei, even if it was without words, that he wanted him, and to feel Kei say it back with clingy hands and eager lips.

And it just didn’t end. Where Tetsurou would’ve pulled away, had this been the short and sweet kiss he might’ve hoped for, Kei parted his lips and deepened the kiss, which left Tetsurou so breathless, Kei might as well have stolen his lungs along with his heart. After a while of that, Kei slowly wrapped his arms around Tetsurou’s neck and pulled him even closer, and Tetsurou responded by slipping his hands down Kei’s chest and coiling his own arms around Kei’s waist, pulling him into his lap because it was the only way he could hold Kei as close as he liked on the floor like this. Kei’s long, long legs were straddling Tetsurou’s thighs, and his heart was racing so close to Tetsurou’s own, and Tetsurou couldn’t have imagined a better way to end the year.

Honestly, he had almost _forgotten_ that it was the end of the year. He’d forgotten everything, where they were, why they were there, who they were _supposed_ to be with, until suddenly, Tetsurou heard the rest of the party guests loudly counting down from ten. Kei didn’t react in the slightest to their shouting, and Tetsurou almost wondered if Kei didn’t notice, but if Kei wasn’t going to pull away to count down to the new year, then neither was he. He just listened and let the other guests do the counting for him as he held the love of his life closer and kissed him.

_“Three! Two! One!”_

_“Happy New Year!”_

It wasn’t until then that Kei broke off the kiss, breathing heavily and smiling softly down at Tetsurou.

“Happy New Year, Tetsurou,” he murmured.

Tetsurou let out an airy laugh. “Happy New Year, Kei,” he said back. Kei leaned in again, and he was more than happy to reciprocate. This time, though, the kiss didn’t last long before Kei spoke up again.

“Hey, Tetsurou?” Kei whispered, pulling back just enough to look Tetsurou in the eye. “Can I tell you a secret before we continue?”

Tetsurou nodded, taking the opportunity to actually breathe. “Of course.”

Kei leaned his forehead against Tetsurou’s, taking a moment to catch his own breath before admitting, “I’ve wanted this to happen for a really long time.”

Tetsurou’s eyes widened. “What? How long?”

Kei laughed. “Uh, let’s just say it’s been a couple of New Year’s Eves,” he said before he started leaning in again.

Tetsurou quickly moved a hand down to Kei’s chest to hold him back. “H-hey, wait a second, let’s not just say that - how many New Year’s Eves?”

Kei winced. “C’mon, Tetsurou, it’s embarrassing...”

“How many?” Tetsurou pressed.

Kei bit his lip a moment before giving in. “Tetsurou, I’ve wanted this to happen since we first became friends.”

Tetsurou could do nothing but stare. “You’re kidding.”

“I know it’s pathetic,” Kei said, looking down and away from Tetsurou’s gaze. “But-”

“No, no, Kei,” Tetsurou interrupted, “I’ve wanted this to happen since then, too.”

“No, you didn’t,” Kei said immediately.

“Yes, I did,” Tetsurou insisted, furrowing his brow slightly in confusion at Kei’s dismissal of the idea.

“Tetsurou, you were two years older than me and the captain of one of the best volleyball teams in Tokyo,” Kei reminded him. “Why the hell would you have wanted some angsty first-year who could barely block?”

“You really think that’s how I saw you?” Tetsurou asked, pulling back to really look at Kei properly. “Kei, you weren’t ‘some angsty first-year’ to me. Just spending training camp with you, teaching you blocking and watching you improve so rapidly and just seeing you open up and start to put your all into it... That’s all it took for me, Kei, I was fucking gone. You were, and have always been, absolutely amazing, and just getting to know you more and more over the years... Kei, how could I _not_ want to kiss you?”

“I-I would think very easily.”

“Not at all,” Tetsurou said, shaking his head. “I’ve tried. I’m convinced at this point that it’s literally impossible to not want to kiss you.”

“You... You _really_ wanted to kiss me all these years?”

“Kiss you, date you, build a healthy, happy relationship with you based on mutual respect, you name it,” Tetsurou continued, because now that he’d started confessing, he couldn’t stop. “I care about you so much, Kei, I like you so, so, so much, Kei...”

Kei looked like he didn’t know what to say, and even if he felt like this was actually going shockingly well, Tetsurou couldn’t help but be nervous as he waited for Kei to say something back. Still, it wasn’t long before Kei leaned down and buried his face in the crook of Tetsurou’s neck, hiding as he admitted, “I really like you, too, Kuroo.”

“I was ‘Tetsurou’ a minute ago,” Tetsurou teased.

“Tetsurou,” Kei repeated, “I really, really like you.”

And Tetsurou was so full of happiness, of warmth and hope and love for Kei, he couldn’t help but tighten his arms around Kei and squeeze him as tightly as he could.

“Tetsurou, if this all turns out to be a joke, I’m literally going to murder you.”

Tetsurou just burst out laughing. “Holy shit, why would this be a joke?”

“It’s not a joke, right?”

“ _No_!”

“ _Swear_?”

“Kei, look at me,” Tetsurou told him, and Kei hesitated before pulling away from Tetsurou’s shoulder to look him in the eye. Tetsurou gave him a smile and assured him, “I _swear_ to you that this is not a joke, and I am one-hundred-percent serious when I say that I like you. Okay?”

Kei waited a moment before giving in, but he did, giving a small sigh as his pout turned back into a smile.

“Happy New Year, Kei,” Tetsurou said again, because this was the happiest New Year he’d had in a long time.

Kei chuckled softly before saying it back, “Happy New Year, Tetsurou,” and Tetsurou felt so stupidly happy that if the world ended right now, he wouldn’t even care.

But the world didn’t end, and instead, in that moment, Kei just leaned in to kiss Tetsurou again, and it was hard to stop smiling long enough to kiss back, but Tetsurou managed.

The smile was quickly wiped off his face when there was a sudden shout of, “Kuroo, where are you?!” from right outside the door, and as quickly as he and Kei separated from one another, it wasn’t quick enough before Bokuto was already barging in.

“ _There_...” Bokuto immediately cut himself off when he saw Tetsurou and Kei, absolute blushing messes as they tried to put some distance between the two of them. “Holy shit.”

“Bokuto-”

“Holy shit!” he said with a laugh. “Fucking _finally_!”

“ _Bokuto_!”

“Keiji!” Bokuto yelled over his shoulder, ignoring Tetsurou and even leaving the door wide open as he wandered off to tell his own boyfriend the good news. “Keiji, it finally happened!”

“I didn’t think Bokuto was even at this fucking party,” Kei grumbled.

Tetsurou sighed as he got to his feet. “Must’ve shown up late,” he said as he helped Kei up. “Hope you weren’t planning on keeping this a secret.”

“Well, I was kind of hoping we could at least sort things out and go on a date or two first,” Kei admitted as he got his balance and stood a lot closer to Tetsurou than was necessary. “But whatever.”

Without really thinking about it, Tetsurou’s hands found their way to Kei’s waist. “Do you wanna stick around here or call it a night?”

“Maybe we should call it a night.” Kei moved his hands to Tetsurou’s shoulders. “This party really sucks.”

Tetsurou smiled and pressed a quick kiss to Kei’s lips, and even just a peck made his stomach dip all over again. “Can I walk you home?”

“Weren’t you going to walk me home anyway?”

“Yeah, but now it has a different connotation.”

“Yes, you can walk me home,” Kei confirmed, cupping a hand behind Tetsurou’s head to pull him in for another kiss.

_This is literally the best New Year’s ever._

Or at least, it felt like it was until Bokuto came back with Akaashi in tow and shouted, “ _Look_ , they’re even doing it _again_!” and they had to jump apart again.

“Koutarou, I didn’t know you were dragging me back here so we could _walk in on them_ ,” Akaashi said, sounding just as done with Bokuto’s antics as ever.

“I didn’t know they’d be _still_ be kissing!” Bokuto said defensively.

“Let’s just go,” Kei grumbled, taking Tetsurou’s hand and pulling him along behind him as he pushed past Bokuto and Akaashi.

“Right behind you,” Tetsurou said with a chuckle, because regardless of how ridiculous Bokuto was being, this was still definitely the best New Year’s ever.

~

Standing just outside of Kei’s apartment building, neither Tetsurou nor Kei wanted to say goodbye. They just stood close to each other, the clouds of each other’s breath mixing in the icy, January air, and held each other’s hands, making excuses just to stay like that a little longer.

“Thanks for walking me home,” Kei said quietly.

“Anytime.”

“And for picking me up.”

“Of course.”

“I had a really nice time tonight. Even though the party sucked.”

“Me too.”

“I’m glad you found that bottle of wine.”

“That was fun,” Tetsurou agreed.

“I’m glad I got to spend the night just talking to you instead of pretending to enjoy a shitty party.”

“I’m glad we got to talk, too.”

“I’m...” Kei cleared his throat. “I’m really happy that you asked to kiss me at midnight.”

Tetsurou laughed and gave Kei’s hands a squeeze. “I’m really happy that you said yes.”

Kei seemed to run out of things to say, so he just said another, “Happy New Year,” before kissing Tetsurou again.

Tetsurou groaned as Kei pulled away. “My apartment feels so far away,” he grumbled, already dreading having to walk home by himself in the cold before they’d even separated.

“Then stay here,” Kei offered.

Tetsurou’s eyebrows shot up. “Really?”

Kei just smiled and shook his head at Tetsurou. “Tetsurou, you’ve slept at my apartment dozens of times.”

“Yeah, but now it has a different connotation!” Tetsurou insisted.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Kei laughed. “But you can either come upstairs with me and borrow my shower and a pair of pajamas and get warm _now_ , and I’ll make you tea and we can rant about how ridiculous Bokuto is, or you can go home.”

“Well, when you put it like _that_.”

Kei just grinned. “Come on,” he said, pulling Tetsurou up the steps to his apartment, and Tetsurou _gladly_ followed. Maybe it was rushing things, spending the night at Kei’s less than an hour after their first kiss, but it wasn’t like they had just met or anything. They’d known each other for years, and if Kei was telling the truth, they had both wanted this exact thing to happen the whole time. Besides, it wasn’t like they were going to _do_ anything; they were going to drink tea and talk and then go to sleep. It was the same thing they _always_ did when Tetsurou crashed at Kei’s. The only difference was that there was probably going to be some kissing thrown in there, and Tetsurou was not going to say no to _that_.

Still, there was just one last thing on Tetsurou’s mind as Kei unlocked the door to his apartment and the two of them stepped inside.

“Hey, Kei?”

“Mm?”

“I still wanna know what your secret New Year’s resolution was,” he said, because now that he knew how Kei felt, he couldn’t help but think that maybe it had something to do with him. Maybe Kei had been wanting to get the courage to confess to him, too.

Kei cringed as he closed the door behind them. “Uh, are you sure?”

“C’mon, you can tell me.”

Kei turned his back to Tetsurou as he slipped off his coat. “Well... Honestly, it was to get over you.”

Tetsurou’s jaw dropped, because that wasn’t quite the answer he had been imagining. “ _Really_?”

“I didn’t think I had a chance with you!” Kei said defensively, and when he turned to face Tetsurou again, his face was red. “And it’s not like I ever _succeeded_!”

“Lucky for me,” Tetsurou said, “considering you’re usually amazing at anything you put your mind to.”

Kei blushed a little brighter at the compliment, but just gave Tetsurou’s shoulder a playful shove. “Yeah, well, maybe I wasn’t trying that hard.”

Tetsurou pulled Kei’s waist into his arms again, just because he could, and because it felt so wonderful and easy and like it was meant to be. “Is it still one of your resolutions this year?” he asked teasingly.

Kei just laughed. “It’s like I said before. Everyone gives up on their resolutions eventually.”

Tetsurou tightened his hold on Kei’s waist as Kei draped his arms over his shoulders. “Here’s to giving up.”

“Really?” Kei snorted. “You already toasted to low standards and now giving up?”

“And a happy new year,” Tetsurou added as he leaned in for another kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> {[click here to reblog from my writing tumblr](http://melissawritesstuff.tumblr.com/post/136375133699/what-are-you-doing-new-years-eve)}  
> ★reblogs are much appreciated★


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